Using Smartsheet for environment management

Has anyone used Smartsheet for environment/instance management in a software development group?

We have a number of DEV and TEST systems used by multiple different teams. We want a way to reserve the environments so teams don't accidently add new code to a system that is being tested for a release.

The thought was to create "users" that tie to each environment, for example "Test System App 1" would be a Smartsheet user. In the project plan, the team would create a dev/test task that is assigned to Test System App 1. We'd then manage the environment use like a resource, using Smartsheet's resource management. As the project dates sometimes change, they would be updated in the plan would shift the booking for the environment and teams can see if another project is expecting to use the test system when they change dates.

If anyone has done something similar to this, I'd appreciate any input you might have or any gotchas you encountered.

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Comments

J. Craig Williams

Terri,

Yes, resources can be non-persons.

I have used it for rooms, computers, and hypothetical new employees.

It is not a stretch to book a platform in the same way.

BTW, Smartsheet integrates with Jira, if your team uses that.

Hope this helps.

Craig

Terri Pavlovic

Craig - How did you handle the SS requirement to have an email address for the non-person resource?

Bobby Andres

Terri, you could create a new Gmail account or just invite a fake email address to your team. Like this devplatformaccount939@testemail.com

They dont need to accept the invitation, they just need to be invited to the team.

J. Craig Williams

What Bobby said.

There is an minor irritation because sometimes I can't type -- and the System Admin can not edit the user name after it is created. So for fake users, one must delete and readd.

Craig